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Friday 09 July 1999 23:02 BST
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Straits Times

Malaysia

SOME YOUNG Malaysians are sniffing cow dung to get high.. "They look for fresh cow dung and, on locating it, put a large tin can over it, pierce a hole at the top and sniff through it," Perak state assemblyman Mat Isa Ismail said on Saturday. He said that this was becoming a trend. Glue- sniffing is already a problem among many youths. Studies have shown that glue-sniffers usually progress to hard-core drugs. He also suggested that religious education could be a deterrent against cow-dung sniffing. Drug addiction in Malaysia has been listed as the country's number one enemy over the past two decades.

Daily Yomiuri

Japan

CHILDREN USED to trap beetles by spreading sugared water on trees. Now vending machines selling beetles have appeared in Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture. The machines were set up by an Ogaki-based machine-maker, who has for several years been testing the market for the sale of beetles through vending machines. The machines are similar in appearance to coin-operated lockers, delivering beetles in plastic containers for 400 yen a pair. The maker said that so far there have been no health problems with the beetles, adding that people are waiting to buy them as soon as they are loaded into the machines.

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